The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance

In this groundbreaking audiobook,
New York Times best-selling author Steven Kotler decodes the mystery of ultimate human performance. Drawing on over a decade of research and first-hand reporting with dozens of top action and adventure sports athletes like big wave legend Laird Hamilton, big mountain snowboarder Jeremy Jones, and skateboarding pioneer Danny Way, Kotler explores the frontier science of “flow”, an optimal state of consciousness in which we perform and feel our best.

Principles: Life and Work

Ray Dalio, one of the world's most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that he's developed, refined, and used over the past 40 years to create unique results in both life and business - and which any person or organization can adopt to help achieve their goals.

Disrupt Yourself

In Disrupt Yourself, innovator and digital media expert Jay Samit reveals how to achieve your goals and permanently alter the status quo through the art of self-disruption. In today's ever-changing and often-volatile business landscape, adaptability and creativity are more crucial than ever. Samit describes how specific strategies that help companies flourish - challenging assumptions, pinpointing one's unique value, and identifying weaknesses in the structure of current industries - can be applied at an individual level.

Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success

The first book of its kind,
Peak Performance combines the inspiring stories of top performers across a range of capabilities - from athletic, to intellectual, to artistic - with the latest scientific insights into the cognitive and neurochemical factors that drive performance in all domains. In doing so,
Peak Performance uncovers new linkages that hold promise as performance enhancers but have been overlooked in our traditionally-siloed ways of thinking.

Two
New York Times best-selling authors unveil new research showing what meditation can really do for the brain. In the last 20 years, meditation and mindfulness have gone from being kind of cool to becoming an omnipresent Band-Aid for fixing everything from your weight to your relationship to your achievement level. Unveiling here the kind of cutting-edge research that has made them giants in their fields, Daniel Goleman and Richard J Davidson show us the truth about what meditation can really do for us.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

What are the most valuable things that everyone should know? Acclaimed clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson has influenced the modern understanding of personality, and now he has become one of the world's most popular public thinkers. In this book, he provides 12 profound and practical principles for how to live a meaningful life, from setting your house in order before criticising others to comparing yourself to who you were yesterday, not someone else today.

Our ancestors crossed deserts, mountains, and oceans without even a whisper of what anyone today might consider modern technology. Those feats of endurance now seem impossible in an age where we take comfort for granted. But what if we could regain some of our lost evolutionary strength by simulating the environmental conditions of our forbears? Investigative journalist and anthropologist Scott Carney takes up the challenge to find out: Can we hack our bodies and use the environment to stimulate our inner biology?

High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way

After extensive original research and a decade as the world's highest-paid performance coach, Brendon Burchard finally reveals the most effective habits for reaching long-term success. Based on one of the largest surveys ever conducted on high performers, it turns out that just six habits move the needle the most in helping you succeed. Adopt these six habits and you win. Neglect them, and life is a never-ending struggle. We all want to be high performing in every area of our lives. But how?

Head Strong: The Bulletproof Plan to Activate Untapped Brain Energy to Work Smarter and Think Faster - in Just Two Weeks

For the last decade, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dave Asprey has worked with world-renowned doctors and scientists to uncover the latest, most innovative methods for making humans perform better - a process known as "biohacking". In his first book,
The Bulletproof Diet, he shared his biohacking tips for taking control of your own biology. Now, in
Head Strong, Asprey shows listeners how to biohack their way to sharper, smarter, faster, more resilient brains.

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise

Anders Ericsson has spent 30 years studying the special ones - the geniuses, sports stars and musical prodigies. And his remarkable finding, revealed in Peak, is that their special abilities are acquired through training. The innate 'gift' of talent is a myth. Exceptional individuals are born with just one unique ability, shared by us all - the ability to develop our brains and bodies through our own efforts.

Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

In
Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin share hard-hitting Navy SEAL combat stories that translate into lessons for business and life. With riveting firsthand accounts of making high-pressure decisions as Navy SEAL battlefield leaders, this audiobook is equally gripping for leaders who seek to dominate other arenas.

The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance

Michael Jordan credits George Mumford with transforming his on-court leadership of the Bulls, helping Jordan lead the team to six NBA championships. Mumford also helped Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom and countless other NBA players turn around their games. A widely respected public speaker and coach, Mumford is sharing his own story and the strategies that have made these athletes into stars in
The Mindful Athlete: The Secret to Pure Performance.

The Code of the Extraordinary Mind: 10 Unconventional Laws to Redefine Your Life and Succeed on Your Own Terms

The Code of the Extraordinary Mind is a blueprint of laws to break us free from the shackles of ordinary life. It makes a case that everything we know about the world is mostly decided not by rational choice but instead by conditioning and habit. And thus most people live their lives based on limiting rules and outdated beliefs about pretty much everything - love, work, money, parenting, sex, health, and more - that they inherit and pass on from generation to generation.

Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility

When it comes to recruiting, motivating, and creating great teams, Patty McCord says most companies have it all wrong. McCord helped create the unique and high-performing culture at Netflix, where she was chief talent officer. In her new book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, she shares what she learned there and elsewhere in Silicon Valley.

Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one's own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo's astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo's genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.

Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work That Lasts

How can we create and market creative works that achieve longevity? Holiday explores this mystery by drawing on his extensive experience working with businesses and creators such as Google, American Apparel, and the author John Grisham as well as his interviews with the minds behind some of the greatest perennial sellers of our time.

The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

We are stuck, stymied, frustrated. But it needn't be this way. There is a formula for success that's been followed by the icons of history - from John D. Rockefeller to Amelia Earhart to Ulysses S. Grant to Steve Jobs - a formula that let them turn obstacles into opportunities. Faced with impossible situations, they found the astounding triumphs we all seek.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Since its release in 1949,
The Hero with a Thousand Faces has influenced millions of readers by combining the insights of modern psychology with Joseph Campbell's revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In this book, Campbell outlines the Hero's Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through virtually all of the world's mythic traditions. He also explores the Cosmogonic Cycle, the mythic pattern of world creation and destruction.

Dr Nik Jewell says:"A triumph of over generalisation and reductionism"

The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead

We are in the midst of a powerful psychedelic renaissance. After four decades of hibernation, the promise of the psychoactive 60s - that deeper self-awareness, achieved through reality-bending substances and practices, will lead to greater external harmony - is again gaining a major following. The signs are everywhere, from the influence of today's preeminent psychedelic thinker Daniel Pinchbeck, to the renewed interest in the legacy of Terence McKenna, and to the upsurge of collective cultural phenomena like the spectacle of Burning Man.

We hear that we must be passionate about only one thing, that 10,000 hours of hard practice is needed to achieve mastery. But in fact most successful people, including Nobel Prize winners, nurture multiple areas of knowledge and activity that feed their central subject. Whether it's making a perfect soufflé, dancing a tango or lighting a fire, when we take the time to cultivate small and quantifiable areas of expertise, we change everything.

I Know What to Do, So Why Don't I Do It?: The New Science of Self-Discipline

You might think laziness, lack of willpower, and/or low motivation are to blame for the fact that you aren't achieving your goals. But fascinating research in the field of psychoneuroimmunology has revealed another, far more likely possibility. One with the potential to transform your life in a dramatic way.

Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts

In Super Bowl XLIX, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll made one of the most controversial calls in football history: With 26 seconds remaining, and trailing by four at the Patriots' one-yard line, he called for a pass instead of a handing off to his star running back. The pass was intercepted, and the Seahawks lost. Critics called it the dumbest play in history. But was the call really that bad? Or did Carroll actually make a great move that was ruined by bad luck? Even the best decision doesn't yield the best outcome every time.

Tomorrowland: Our Journey From Science Fiction to Science Fact

New York Times,
Wired,
Atlantic Monthly,
Discover bestselling author Steven Kotler has written extensively about those pivotal moments when science fiction became science fact...and fundamentally reshaped the world. Now he gathers the best of his best, updated and expanded upon, to guide listeners on a mind-bending tour of the far frontier, and how these advances are radically transforming our lives.

Publisher's Summary

The authors of the best-selling Bold and The Rise of Superman explore altered states of consciousness and how they can ignite passion, fuel creativity, and accelerate problem solving, in this groundbreaking book in the vein of Daniel Pink's Drive and Charles Duhigg's Smarter Faster Better.

Why has generating "flow" and getting "into the zone" become the goal of the world's most elite organizations? Why are business moguls attending Burning Man? Why has meditation become a billion-dollar industry? Why are technology gurus turning to psychedelic drugs to unlock creativity?

All of these people are seeking to shift their state of mind as a way of unlocking their true potential. Altered states, the authors reveal, sharpen our decision making capabilities, unleash creativity, fuel cooperation, and let us tap into levels of inspiration and innovation unavailable at all other times. Stealing Fire combines cutting-edge research and first-hand reporting to explore a revolution in human performance - a movement millions of people strong to harness and utilize some of the most misunderstood and controversial experiences in history.

Building a bridge between the extreme and the mainstream, this groundbreaking and provocative book examines how the world's top performers - the Navy SEALS, Googlers, Fortune 100 CEOs - are using altered states to radically accelerate performance and massively improve their lives, and how we can too.

Ultimately, Stealing Fire is a book about profound possibility - about what is actually possible for ourselves and our species when we unlock the full potential of the human mind.

I've never get the urge to write a review before, but this is one of the best books I've ever read/heard. A very insightful and interesting look into altered states, which it turns out comes from all sorts of activities and is growing. Fast.

If you're interested in learning about the minds potential and ways you can think outside the box, I would highly recommend this book.

Where does Stealing Fire rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best. I loved this book so much I am finally writing a review. Mind bending, I'm heavily in to the Brain, Neuro plasticity, epigenetics, quantum physics mindfulness etc. I usually get a book and its the same old research presented slightly differently. This book was so refreshingly new, I had no idea these things were going on. I love books that are thought provoking and leave me somewhat confused and wanting to know more. This is one of those books, I'm off to listen to it again with a pen and paper.

Would you try another book written by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal or narrated by Fred Sanders?

Nope. I have no idea what the point of this book is. I got 5 hours in and it just seems to be telling us that (some) people take drugs and that can/may make them 'perform' better. Thanks guys... Nobody knew that! I wasted 5 hours of my life.

Would you ever listen to anything by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal again?

Not a chance - Two words: Credit Refund.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Fred Sanders?

No.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Stealing Fire?

All of the content.

Any additional comments?

Don't buy this book unless you want a 'text' book on how drugs have been used to alter perception. Waffle waffle waffle. I may be being a dullard but I have no idea what the authors are trying to tell us other than some drugs may be good if you want to experience other worlds or enhance perception with pharmaceuticals. Little or NO practical information.

Poorly researched book. The writer seems to have no depth. It felt like reading a Silicon Valley spin on spiritual practices that have literally been around forever but has suddenly been discovered by this writer when people have been quietly doing these things since the beginning of time.

It also felt like an excuse for people who need permission to dope or take drugs.

The idea that you can skip all the spiritual practices and use technology to hack into consciousness, a.k.a the flow, sends me into a fits of giggle. Its the equivalent of Facebook back in 2007 when all you needed to be popular was to sign up and have thousands of friends. Years later, people realised they were more lonely than they ever were before FB. This book is going to give its followers the same effect later.

What was most disappointing about Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal ’s story?

A clue was in the name - comparing the Navy Seals (who commit murder no matter how we see it) with consciousness shows how non-conscious the writer is deep down. This book was an excuse for the writer(s) to name drop and build their influencer status in Silicon Valley. PS: Elon Musk and all the other rich tech guys mentioned in this book are the worse part; why name drop or at the very worse, make it seem that just because they are doing something it must be the right thing to do? They are not gods or demigods!

Would you listen to another book narrated by Fred Sanders?

Yes

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Stealing Fire?

All of it? Un-listen to the book as it was a waste of my time.

Any additional comments?

The writer should enjoy his influencer status for now and for as long as he can but he should know that his message is very misleading and makes one worry for the future generations of those without their own inner sense of reasoning who will be influenced by this dribble.

Reminiscent of works such as &quot;The Unfettered Mind&quot; by Zen monks Takuan Soho but extremely interesting from the modern context as this in part was exactly what I was trying to stimulate with world class tennis players through hypnosis, once upon a time.

I can only imagine how supercharged the world would be, full of people wanting to be the best they can be while respecting others and their environment if loads of people read/listened to this fantastic book

Would you try another book from Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal and/or Fred Sanders?

No. After purchasing Stealing Fire, I feel like I got "burned." The book promises to be, "a guidebook for anyone who wants to radically upgrade their life." Unfortunately, it's just a guidebook to entice you into joining their training which costs $700 annually.

Has Stealing Fire turned you off from other books in this genre?

No. Just the author and his team of people who clearly wrote this book as nothing more than a means to sell their $700 "training."

Have you listened to any of Fred Sanders’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. It's on par with his other work.

What did you take away from Stealing Fire that you can apply to your work?

I learned that an entire "guidebook" can be written without giving any truly actionable guidance other than, "you should pay me $700 to get the REAL advice you were seeking when you bought my audiobook." I also learned that an entire audiobook lasting 8 hours, 24 minutes can be nothing more than marketing. If I wanted to be an asshole, maybe I'd apply these lessons to my own endeavors but my ethics won't let me.

Any additional comments?

If you feel a need to satisfy your curiosity about this book, be prepared to take advantage of Audible's generous return policy; I certainly did.

78 of 86 people found this review helpful

alaskacie

25/02/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Authors pester people who buy the book"

To review, to buy more copies, so that they can rank higher (expressly said). Getting back to the book, it describes a lot of what, but nothing practical for how -- except, presumably if you join their $497 program.

51 of 61 people found this review helpful

SF Dev

San Francisco, California United States

29/03/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"An overview of the stupid hobbies of rich people"

This review title should not strike anyone as controversial because in chapter 8 he literally uses the term "trickle down ecstasis" and it is only at this point that he talks about anything that is remotely useful to the average reader. Even at that point, he dwells upon the same boring themes that dominate the rest of his book, most chiefly, designer drug use. I picked up this book under the impression that this would describe the practices that have helped people and organizations innovate and succeed. However the author appears to have gotten the causal relationship reversed and he was too stoned to realize it; all he talks about is the stuff people with a lot of spare time and money end up doing with their excess resources. Perhaps the only exception to this is his description of Seal Team Six, which he puts at the beginning of the book likely because it's the only part of the book with any merit whatsoever. It's all utterly inane pseudo transcendence that I am completely bored of as someone who was raised in California. Nothing new at all. All of the studies are flimsy. This book sounds like a multi-hour long rant of a Burning Man attendee trying to explain why acting like a self-indulgent kiddult in the desert is somehow an admirable experience. It's actually harmful to imply that such "vehicles of ecstasis" can help people succeed to the extent the author does. I met several people who have already been fooled by this argument in the tech industry and I have achieved more promotions and more success than any of them without having to take a single "dab" of any chemical garbage. Dropping acid like Steve Jobs doesn't turn you into Steve Jobs; unfortunately, this book touches upon none of the characteristics that will actually make you a good engineer or business leader and skips straight to the dropping acid part and which is frankly demeaning and stupid. Great book for people who want to pat themselves on the back for their bad habits, not a great book for people who like well researched and balanced arguments that will stand the test of time.

36 of 44 people found this review helpful

Margaret D Ziedin

26/02/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Compelling, Validating and Enlightening"

I liked this book because the topic is something everybody craves on some level or another. Everyone wants to lift their game and up level their happiness feel more flow. Seeking the consistent flow, grow and collaboration for a rich life, rich in essence not necessarily material gain. This book takes you there and connects so many dots, it's brilliant. There wasn't much I disliked about the story, the way it was written or read. It's all good. I'd recommend it to anyone open minded, interested in consistent high performance for life and work, creatives and empaths will love it, the same as CEOs and other driven professionals and athletes and adrenaline junkies. If you are really religious it may not be your thing, I still encourage everyone to be open minded to this valid and worthy read. I rated it high because it brought together so many of my interests in one place. Thanks

13 of 16 people found this review helpful

Kary Oberbrunner

Columbus, OH

21/02/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Use the Fire Wisely"

What did you love best about Stealing Fire?

I enjoyed the deep research the authors did on this topic. Their scholarship shows.

What other book might you compare Stealing Fire to and why?

I think Stealing Fire begins where Rise of Superman ends.

Which character – as performed by Fred Sanders – was your favorite?

Fred was a brilliant narrator.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It was deep. If you rush it, you'll miss some of the mojo.

Any additional comments?

Loving the audio version. It released this morning and I'm deep into the content. (I caught several of their podcasts on this topic earlier in the month.)

The research is thorough. The implications are provocative. Although I'm not swallowing every expression of altered states—literally or figuratively—I've been a student of Steven's since Rise of Superman. Just like in that book, he masterfully weaves a multi-disciplinary approach to the topic at hand.

I love the fact they chose to co-author this one. Jamie's passion is infectious and he brings a deep wealth of expertise to the conversation.

I believe this book will be a seminal resource toward shifting our understanding of what's possible. My advice? Enter Stealing Fire with an openness to learn and grow. And use discernment when deciding which practices to integrate into your own life. Clearly, there is a buffet of options. Just like with fire, some uses will be beneficial. Others might get you burned. Wisdom knows the difference between the two.

Great job Steven and Jamie.

19 of 24 people found this review helpful

Shawnee

WELLSVILLE, NY, United States

23/06/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Interesting at times, yet boring and uninspiring."

The stories were too long to make a simple point. Though it was an interesting concept, I felt that the ideas were not as groundbreaking as everyone is told... these concepts have been around a very long time, and because of this, I didn't think it was very inspiring or useful.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Expedition Outreach

Boston, Ma

27/04/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Flow is the new enlightenment"

A new way of viewing humanities journey to heal and enlighten our consciousness. Amazing book!

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

World Peace

12/04/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Wow!"

Usually, a very well thought out review with intriguing perspectives is what I provide. But just wow. So deal with that. (Read this book.)

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Sam Jones

11/04/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"it's a journey"

what a great culmination of research into introspection, finding flow and extasis.

I'll be checking out the courses.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Nomad-Dave

05/04/17

Overall

Performance

Story

"Amazing information"

This book talks about everything I'm interested in. Amazing information and written in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

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